Discovering God s Purpose for my Life Firstly I want to say to anyone who wants to know God s purpose for their life, well done for being wise in seeking the purpose for your life from God. The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfilment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. It s far greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams and ambitions. If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You were born by His purpose and for His purpose. Rick Warren I f we focus on ourselves we will never discover the purposes for our existence or God s will for our lives. You don t discover your purpose of life s meaning for you by looking within yourself. If our minds are ruled by our desires, we will die. But if our minds are ruled by the Spirit, we will have life and peace. Romans 8:6 Matthew 16:25 If you want to save your life, you will destroy it. But if you give up your life for me you will find it. If you want to find what you were created for, what s your purpose and God s will for your life, don t look at your belly button for answers, look to your creator and have a desire to live for Him. We are going to look at how to discover God s general will for your life and then how to discover His specific daily will for your life. Looking back to Rick Warren s devotional book The Purpose Driven Life you and I know for sure what God s general will is for us in five different areas. Getting these things right will help you hear the voice of God for the daily specific choices that you have to make. If you are not practicing sin and you are fulfilling these five fundamental purposes for living, you will be fulfilling God s primary purposes for your daily life and living in such a way that He will guide you specifically and daily. These five things are at the core of God s will for your life: 1. To know and to love God through His son Jesus Christ. A word that describes what it means to love God back is WORSHIP. It s God s will that you know Him and WORSHIP Him. 1 Tim 6:21 & Romans 6:13 2. To learn to love God s family (other Christians). This is called FELLOWSHIP 1 John 3:14; Romans 15:7; John 13:34-35 3. To grow to become more and more like Jesus. DISCIPLESHIP Once a person is a Christian they begin a process whereby God will use the Bible, circumstances, other people and time to develop you spiritually and to prepare you
for eternity. Daily He wants to work in you so that your character becomes more like His. 2 Corinthians 3:18; Philippians 1:11; John 15:8 4. To serve others. MINISTRY. In heaven one day we are going to be serving God, and it s going to be hugely enjoyable. How do we prepare for heaven or practice for heaven when we can t see God physically? We prepare by learning to serve others (who we can see physically). That s why God has given you certain talents. You were custom designed by God with talents, gifts, skills and abilities in order to serve God by serving others. The Bible calls this fourth purpose of serving others your ministry. Contrary to popular belief God has wired everyone to have a ministry, which is something that they can do for God. You were given certain abilities for the benefit of others and others were given certain abilities for your benefit. 1 Peter 4:10-11: Each of you have been blessed with one of God s wonderful gifts to be used in the service of others. So use your gift well. If you have the gift of speaking, preach God s message. If you have the gift of helping others, do it with the strength that God supplies. Everything should be done in a way that will bring honour to God... 5. To tell others about God. WITNESSING 2 Corinthians 4:15 God doesn t want His love and purposes kept secret. Once we know the truth He expects us to share it with others. Now you can do this your way according to your own personality and gifting but it must involve words and explaining God s plan of salvation. Even if you find sharing your faith a bit scary, it is God s will for your life that you do witness and you can do that from a motivation of love and concern for people. If you held the cure for cancer in your hands you wouldn t keep it secret would you. God wants you to tell others about Him and the reality is when you do you will feel the power of God, and God will speak to you and through you. It s God s will for you to help people get right with God and live for Him. These five things are definitely God s will for your life: Worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry and witnessing. There is no doubt or question about God s will for you to be active in these five areas. Now God doesn t give you a ten year calendar and make sure you know a month in advance what He wants you to do on the first Tuesday of next month at 9am. The reality is that God has put a passion in your heart to direct your future generally and He will use a variety of sources to direct your life specifically. Your passions will determine where you are to serve God in your ministry and in your job.
Your gifting and abilities will determine how you serve God in your ministry or job. Now when people are fulfilling their basic purposes for life (and we have just talked about the five basic/fundamental purposes for your life and you are not practising sin) you will find that God s heart will shape your heart; that His will for your life will become your will for your life. Here are some questions that will help you determine your passion, that is, God s general will for your life. a. What three things have I done in the past: that service/job that I found really satisfying? 1. 2. 3. b. What would I like written on my grave stone? c. If money, training, locality wasn t an object, in fact there were no obstacles at all, what would I dream of doing? d. What prophesies have I received from God directly or through others that really rang true for me? From those questions you will be able to identify your general direction for life but God doesn t give us a detailed plan, He enjoys guiding us one day at a time. Isaiah 30:21 Whether you turn to the right or the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying This is the way walk in it. Matthew 6: 25-34 - I tell you not to worry about your life. Don t worry about having something to eat, or drink, or wear. Isn t life more than food or clothing? Look at the birds in the sky! They don t plant or harvest. They don t even store grain in barns. Yet your father in heaven takes care of them. Aren t you worth more than the birds? Can worry make you live longer? Why worry about clothes? Look how the wild flowers grow. They don t work hard to make their clothes. But I tell you that Solomon with all his wealth wasn t as well clothed as one of them. God gives such beauty to everything that grows in the fields, even though it is here today and thrown into a fire tomorrow. He will surely do even more for you! Why do you have such little faith? Don t worry and ask yourselves, Will we have anything to eat? Will we have anything to drink? Will we have any clothes to wear? Only people who don t know god are always worrying about such things. Your Father in heaven knows that you need all of these. But more than anything else put God s work first and do what he wants. Then the other things will be yours as well. Don t worry about tomorrow. It will take care of itself. You have enough to worry about today. Put simply, Jesus said, do the things that He wants you to do daily and He will guide you and take care of your needs.
What are some ways for me to know God s specific will for me on a daily basis? 1. What does the Bible have to say about this choice before me? Psalm 119:105, 2 Timothy 3:15-17. Now in life god give you lots and lots of choices and all of them can be the right one. You can choose who you marry. You can choose which house you want to live in or what to wear or where to work but there are parameters that you have to make your choices within. Here are a few questions I want you to answer. Is it God s will for me if I am single to date a non-christian? Is it God s will for me to get into debt? Is it God s will for me to go to church? Is it God s will for me to get drunk when I am feeling down? 2. Simple prayer. Philippians 4: 6-7 Don t worry about anything, but pray about everything. With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God. Then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand. And the peace will control the way you think and feel. When I was looking to leave Raetihi and move to Auckland two churches invited me to be their pastor. Do you know how I knew that this one was the right one for me? I stood in the church then on the street outside and felt a real peace. That s all, no audible voices, no visions or earthquakes, just a peace and I trust the way God guides us through giving us a peace. If I didn t have a peace about a decision I would hold off making that decision until I did. 3. Confirmation through mentors or mature Christian friends. If you have a big decision to make and you are not quite sure which way to go then take time to sit down with a mature Christian you respect, share your thoughts with them and see if they sense God s approval or peace. If that person has the gift of wisdom all the better. If you are about to make a big decision for your future, aim to check it out with a wise Christian person. One of the great benefits of being married to a Godly, intelligent wife is that we both pray about the big decisions and only make those decisions when we are in agreement. Even the elders and I do that together. When any one of us feels that God has spoken to us about the future of the church, we will take that to the eldership and lay it down to be tested. If there is a concensus then I am certain that, that decision is God s will for us collectively.
4. The Holy Spirit s leading. One of the greatest gifts that you can give to a person is to teach them how to listen for God s voice personally. I am so, so grateful to Les and Trish and their team for what they have taught our children s church. I am so grateful to Trish for what she has taught us. You and I hear God s voice in so many different ways. I feel these strong God nudges at times or ideas that drop into my head that don t go away until I act on them. Commonly I get pictures of what God is saying to me or even of words. Often when I am speaking I will feel words drop into my mind and when they do they seem to come attached to passion and the presence of God. How do I know God s will for my life? I already know that He wants you and I to live a holy life. I already k now that He wants you and I to: 1. Worship that is to love God back. 2. Fellowship love God s children. 3. Become more like Jesus daily. 4. Serve Him by serving others and 5. Share my faith with others. Those things are God s ultimate plan for each of our lives. If we are walking with Him, enjoying Him He will put His desires for our lives in our hearts and our passions will indicate the big picture, what should I do with my life, and my gifts and talents will dictate how I do these things. God so loves us He does not give us detail in advance. He wants to guide us one day at a time and during those days you and I will know God s will as you and I: 1. Take counsel from His Word. 2. Pray simple prayers and be guided by His peace. 3. Check out our ideas with other wise Christians and 4. Listen to the voice of God. To find God s will for our lives we need to aim to live for Him and not ourselves daily. By putting His Kingdom and what He wants us to do first the other pieces of the puzzle are going to fall into place one day at a time!